MILITARY PRESENCE IN KALININGRAD SAID TO BE DROPPING.

The deputy commander of the Baltic Fleet yesterday told a Danish group visiting Kaliningrad oblast that there are no more than 30,000 troops in the Russian enclave nestled between Poland and Lithuania. (Interfax/BNS, November 4) Each of these countries has expressed concern in the past over Russia’s military presence in Kaliningrad, and there have been proposals that the region should be demilitarized. At one time Western analysts estimated that there were as many as 200,000 troops there. In October 1994, Russia told Lithuania that there were 40,000 troops in Kaliningrad, and that this number would eventually be reduced to 26,000. (Jane’s Intelligence Review, December 1994) In 1995 the Kaliningrad Special Defense Region was created to embrace all the military units in the enclave. It was subordinated to the commander-in-chief of the Baltic Fleet. The main fleet base is at Baltiisk.

Belarusan President Turns to Orthodox Church.